Apopalips
by TatraMegami
Summary: Things got crazy after the aliens attacked and wiped out several large cities, but Hogwarts continued to stand. Now life has just gotten even crazier: two people show up claiming to be Lily and James Potter from another world and the world is ending. AU.
1. A Different World

A/N: This was written for the Apocalyptic Big Bang over on LiveJournal. This is the part where I say that I don't own Harry Potter, Leverage, or any of the other characters that are mentioned within here. I should also warn that there is slight Harry/Draco slash, but it really isn't that noticeable. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter One: A Different World

* * *

James and Lily Potter spoke the words of the spell in unison. The magic flared up and, instead of staring at the Great Hall filled with the Order of the Phoenix, they were staring at a crowded hall. James let out a sigh of relief. "It worked."

The relief didn't last too long, however, as the crowd reacted and the Potters found themselves facing down wands.

"Don't move," a boy that looked like the alternate world's version of Neville Longbottom ordered.

"We don't mean any harm," Lily said.

"We're from another universe, we're hoping that you can help us out," James added. "I'm James Potter, and this is my wife, Lily."

The boy snorted and motioned towards them. "Right, like I would believe that one. Take them to the cells," the boy ordered and the wands around them closed in. The men quickly disarmed James and Lily and their hands were bound.

A blond teen appeared at the entrance to the Great Hall and scowled at them. "The alarms went off. So, what do you have for me?"

"Two for the cells," Neville answered. "They say that they're a James and Lily Potter from an alternate world, but I say we should give them the standard treatment of unknowns."

"Right. Follow me," the blond ordered as he whirled around. The blond led them down to the dungeons and they were shoved into a cell.

"Who are you?" James asked before the blond could leave.

"No questions," the blond answered.

"We need to talk to your leaders. If we could just talk to Dumbledore then I'm sure we could straighten everything out," James tried again.

The blond rolled his eyes at them. "You have really outdated information. Someone will be by to talk to you when they can. In the mean time, the cell has a dampener field on it, so don't try to hurt yourself or anyone else. Behave and you will be seen to sooner."

The blond turned away, ignoring James' protests. He was about to leave them when someone came stumbling down the hall. James could see the person in a minute, a dark hair boy of the same age as the blond. The dark hair boy latched onto the blond, hanging over the blond's shoulders.

The dark hair boy blinked at James. "Who's this, then?"

"Supposedly James and Lily Potter from an alternate world. They want to talk to Dumbledore," the blond answered.

The dark hair boy tilted his head. "That could be arranged."

"Didn't you just get done with the ones down the hall?" The blond scowled.

"There's always room for more." The dark hair boy shrugged.

"Let someone else handle it." The blond tried to shrug the dark hair boy off of his shoulders, but it didn't work. "Let's go."

James watched the two walk down the hall before collapsing onto the bed beside his wife. "Somehow that didn't go the way we expected it to."

"Dumbledore will set it right," Lily comforted him.

* * *

Harry stubbornly insisted on hanging onto Draco's arm as they walked down the hall, heading up to the war room to report the current events. Though, Harry's news really wasn't as interesting as Draco's was.

"Do you really think that they are James and Lily Potter?" Harry asked as they made their way into the corridor that led to the war room. It was safe to talk there, as long as it wasn't something too sensitive.

"You didn't get anything off of them?" Draco asked.

Harry shrugged. "Thought I didn't get to play with them right this minute."

"Do you think you can at least try to act normal?" Draco grumbled. "You really shouldn't be allowed to be near that group."

"There's nothing wrong with my side of the council." Harry wrinkled his nose. "I really can't see how you can stand to be in the side that you are on."

"There's nothing wrong with my side of the council," Draco used Harry's earlier words in defense.

"It's got Snape," Harry pointed out.

"I still don't understand why you are more freaked out by my working with Snape over the Dark Lord." Draco shook his head.

"Snape is all evil," Harry protested.

"And the Dark Lord killed your parents," Draco replied.

Harry shrugged. "Riddle isn't so bad once you get used to him. You work under him, remember?"

"That's different. My father," Draco paused before continuing, "my father worked under him, so it was obvious that I would be put under his control."

"My father worked under Dumbledore and McGonagall and I was put onto the team that I am on now," Harry said.

"Both sides claimed you, it only made sense to put you under the new commander." Draco would have continued with the argument, if not for the fact that they were finally waved through into the war room.

Draco was slightly surprised to see that all three of the Council members were seated at the table, instead of one of their second in commands. Then Draco saw that Neville was standing in front of the table and he realized that it must be due to the two recently put into the dungeons.

"Report," McGonagall said as soon as they entered the room.

Neville went first, as he was the first one on the scene. "The two just appeared out of nowhere and they surrendered when pressed. They said that they were from an alternate universe and that their names were James and Lily Potter."

McGonagall gasped in shock and Riddle frowned. The third member of the council was also frowning, but more out of confusion than anything.

"I brought them down to the dungeons and put them in a cell. They asked to talk to Dumbledore," Draco continued. "They seemed to have no idea what was going on."

"Heavens," McGonagall whispered.

"It could just be them playing tricks," Riddle said.

"I am only here to say that I finished with Prisoner Steve; I'm really not sure why I was included in this summons," Harry answered.

"We heard the rumors that the two claimed to be James and Lily Potter and it seemed fitting that you be in this meeting," McGonagall said.

"Would everyone mind explaining this to me?" the third member of the council finally spoke up. Nathan Ford glanced around at the people in the room. "Who are James and Lily Potter and what has all of you so spooked."

"James and Lily Potter were my parents before Riddle killed them in his Voldemort stage," Harry reported to his commander. "They were well known due to this fact, so everyone is a bit shocked to see these imposters."

"Right, and this whole thing with alternate worlds, is this even possible?" Nate asked. Harry could see the beginning of a plot stirring in his commander's eyes, although he was sure that no one else could.

"Well, certainly no one has done it before," McGonagall hedged.

"But then we thought that life from outer space was impossible, too," Riddle said.

"We'll give them the same treatment of all of the rest of our unknown captives," Eliot Spencer said as he entered the room.

"We kill them?" Harry asked, perking up in interest.

"Interrogate them first, you know, do whatever it is you do to figure out if they are aliens or not," Nate said as he absently waved his hand.

"But we'll leave them for the night," Eliot added.

Harry hummed in disappointment. "Can I go now?"

"I'll get your report later," Nate said.

Riddle nodded towards Draco and he and Harry left Neville with the council. Neville had a lot of responsibilities, working in the Great Hall. Of course, Draco and Harry had just as many responsibilities, working in the dungeon, but that meant that they weren't involved with whatever was going on with the imposters just yet. Draco was in charge of their care while they were in the cells, and Harry was in charge of interrogating them when the time came, but other than that they didn't really have anything to add.

"So, what do you thinks going to happen if they are really the Potters from another universe?" Draco asked as they walked through the corridors arm in arm. Harry had latched on to him as soon as they made it out of the war room and Draco put up with it once more.

"I dunno, I suppose there will be all sorts of questions asked and it's rather obvious that they can't stay here, right?" Harry asked. "I mean, we have enough problems of our own, we don't really need theirs."

"Well, I was more talking about yourself, Harry," Draco replied, although he did agree with Harry.

"What about me?" Harry blinked up at Draco. "I've handled aliens before and, if they are who they say that they are, then it won't be as bad as the aliens. I'll be fine."

"Aren't they your parents of a sort?" Draco hesitantly asked when it was obvious that Harry didn't really get what Draco was talking about.

"My parents are dead," Harry reminded Draco.

"Yeah, but they would be a Lily and James Potter and it was a Lily and James Potter that were your parents, so wouldn't they be your parents in some twisted way?" Draco asked.

"In some twisted way, but luckily, I'm not twisted. I'm demented," Harry answered. "Demented is so much better than twisted; you can get away with a lot more."

"So, you don't like the idea of them being your parents." Draco stared off into the distance. After the first few attacks, Harry wasn't one of the few orphans at Hogwarts. The major cities in the world were all hit by the aliens and a lot of people died, including Draco's parents. Before the aliens came, his father's prestige at the Ministry of Magic was a good thing; after the aliens, his father's prestige at the Ministry of Magic ended up with him dead. Draco tried to imagine if alternates of his parents suddenly showed up and he found himself agreeing with Harry.

"Parents are there for you; they don't just pop out of nowhere and everything is shiny," Harry said after a moment. "Besides, I'm quite happy with Nate-poppa and Sophie-momma."

"They'd kill you if they knew that you were calling them that," a voice came out of nowhere.

"Parker," Harry called out in delight as he tilted his head back to stare at the woman hanging by the ceiling.

Draco blinked, staring up at the thief. "He got that from you, you know."

"That doesn't mean that I would ever call them that to their face," Parker replied, dropping down from the ceiling.

"You called Nate that last week during the meeting," Draco reminded.

Parker shrugged. "He doesn't notice anything during those meetings. Most of the time he's too busy being a mastermind to listen to anything that I say unless it's relevant."

Draco nodded in agreement. Most of the time what Parker said wasn't relevant at all and Nate did seem to be the type to be able to tune her out. Draco moved on to a more pressing question. "What were you doing on the ceiling?"

"I was bored and this part of the ceiling looked like it would hold up; not many ceilings in this castle look that way, you know," Parker informed them.

"Okay, we'll just leave you to your fun," Draco said as he began to pull Harry away. Every time that Harry spent time with the thief he always came back with some odd idea or another and this wasn't the time for another prank.

"I'll see you later," Parker said as she waved them goodbye. Draco heard and chose to ignore the way she sighed and softly said, "Those two are so cute together."

"I wanted to talk to Parker," Harry said with a pout when they were out of earshot.

"Parker's busy right now," Draco said. "And you don't really need more ideas as to what demented people can get away with."

Harry laughed. "You can be demented, too, if you want."

"I'm with you, aren't I? Isn't that demented enough?" Draco asked with a smirk.

"Then let's go be together and forget about parents for the night." Harry returned Draco's smirk.

"I like that idea," Draco replied. Harry's arm dropped down until the two boys were holding hands.


	2. Two Sides to a Prisoner

A/N: Here's the next chapter! And, um, in case you couldn't figure it out from the first chapter, this is an AU. So yeah, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Two: Two Sides to a Prisoner

* * *

James and Lily spent a somewhat decent night in the cell. The bed was a bit small, so it was a bit cramped, and they were upset about being forced to wait to see someone. Still, at least they had a bed and they were going to be left down there to rot.

It was obvious that something was going on, whether these people were also in a war against Voldemort or not. They hadn't expected to see James and Lily and they had chosen to lock them up rather than dealing with them right away. Their Dumbledore had a lot of curiosity; it would have taken something big going on to keep him from seeing them right away. But, this was an alternate universe and the Dumbledore in that universe could be totally different from the Dumbledore in their own universe.

Their cell was almost perfectly soundproof, but James still caught the sounds of people marching up and down the corridor outside their door. He couldn't hear any voices, even when he was sure that he should have heard something, but he also found that he couldn't see outside of the small window in the center of their door. One thing was for sure, this universe's cell security certainly was top notch. He could see why the blond had warned them not to try anything; the one time James had hit the door in frustration his hand bounced off with no damage to either his hand or the door.

After failing to learn anything at all from attempts to spy, James finally settled down with his wife for the night. They were woken up in the morning by the door opening and the sounds of two people talking. James got up first, standing over the bed to protect Lily and eyeing the blond and the black haired boy nervously.

"Good morning," the black haired one chirped as he set a tray down on a table that the blond conjured. "Did you have a good night?"

"Er," James stuttered.

"What sort of charms do you have on your cells?" Lily asked. She slipped around James and headed over to the small table to take her plate off of the tray. She wrinkled her nose at all of the pepper on top of the eggs, but still took the plate back to the bed to eat.

"We are not authorized to tell you at this time," the blond recited.

"It's really nifty, though, isn't it?" the black haired teen gleefully asked.

"So, do the two of you have names?" James asked, a hint of sarcasm to his voice. He frowned as he realized that Lily had already gotten a plate of food, but trusted her judgment enough to get his own plate. He sat down next to his wife and started eating, uncaring as to how much pepper there was all over his plate.

"Twirly and Whirly," the black haired boy said and the blond rolled his eyes.

James stopped eating and blinked in surprise. "Your names really are Twirly and Whirly? Who is who?"

"I am Twirly," the black haired boy gave a twirl in order to demonstrate, "and this is Whirly."

The blond rolled his eyes again and James laughed. "I can see where he gets his name."

"Right," Whirly said as he turned towards Twirly. "Are we done here?"

Twirly regarded them for a moment before nodding to himself. "Yep, all done. We'll be back later, so enjoy the rest of your breakfast."

"The plate and table will disappear in about an hour, so don't worry about the cleanup," Whirly droned. He opened the door as if it were unlocked the whole time and ushered Twirly out of the room before closing the door and leaving the Potters alone once more.

"What was that about?" James asked as he looked down at his breakfast. "You don't think this was poisoned or laced with anything, do you?"

Lily shook her head, "My ring didn't activate, which meant that nothing was added to this meal. The only odd thing about it was the amount of pepper that they used."

James shrugged before going back to eating. "They were kind of odd, weren't they?"

"This coming from a guy who still thinks it is funny to charm his friend's hair pink?" Lily asked as she quirked her eyebrow.

"It is funny," James exclaimed. He wrinkled his nose as he caught the smell of pepper. He tried not to, but he couldn't help but to let out a large sneeze. "There's too much pepper on this food."

* * *

Harry actually got up before dawn, slipping out of the bed without Draco noticing. He found Parker hanging from the ceiling in a different corridor than the day before. She had a harness all ready for him and set about teaching him how to maneuver upside down without setting any laser alarms off.

Draco collected both of them for breakfast and they ate a quick meal before heading down to the dungeons. They split up briefly so that Draco could check up on the breakfast for the prisoners. Harry paced up and down the corridor while he waited for Draco, checking up on each of the prisoners while he waited. He paused at the new occupants, supposedly what could be considered his parents from another world. He grinned as he clutched the grinder in his pocket.

The house elves usually delivered the food to the prisoners, but Draco came strolling down the corridor carrying a tray with two plates of food on it. This was one of the steps that Harry took with new prisoners and he made Draco pause in front of the door so that he could add on extra pepper to the meal. Pepper was an essential ingredient to all of the prisoners' meals, but the first meal warranted the extra pepper.

Draco handed the tray over to Harry before opening the door. They entered the room, creating noise in order to wake the two prisoners up. Draco conjured up a table for the tray to go on, but didn't bother to make any chairs to go with the table. "Good morning," Harry chirped as he set the tray down and then stepped back to watch the alternate Potters. "Did you have a good night?"

"Er." The male Potter had got up from the bed first, but he didn't move towards the food and stayed staring nervously at them. At this point it looked like they would never go eat, so Harry decided to try to reassure them.

"What sort of charms do you have on your cells?" the female Potter asked. She slipped around the male Potter and headed over to the small table to take her plate off of the tray. She wrinkled her nose at all of the pepper on top of the eggs, but still took the plate back to the bed to eat. Harry noted all of that down mentally and watched as she waved her hand over the food before taking a bite. Nothing obvious happened, so he switched his attention back to the male Potter.

"We are not authorized to tell you at this time," Draco recited as an answer.

"It's really nifty, though, isn't it?" Harry gleefully asked. He personally loved the nonviolence wards, as it meant that he could play around with the prisoners all he wanted, not to mention the times where he just bounced off of the wall of an empty cell.

"So, do the two of you have names?" the male Potter asked, a hint of sarcasm to his voice. He frowned when he realized that the female Potter had already gotten a plate of food, but actually went over to the table to get his plate. He sat down next to the female Potter and started eating, uncaring as to how much pepper there was all over his plate. Harry noted this down and shifted back a step to watch the two of them at once.

"Twirly and Whirly," Harry answered with the first names that popped into his head. Sophie-momma probably wouldn't like his choice in names, but she would commend him for how smoothly he answered.

The male Potter stopped eating and blinked in surprise. "Your names really are Twirly and Whirly? Who is who?"

"I am Twirly," Harry gave a twirl in order to demonstrate and add validity to their fake names, "and this is Whirly."

Harry didn't even need to look at Draco to know that the blond had rolled his eyes at him; it happened quite often enough. The male Potter laughed. "I can see where he gets his name."

"Right," Draco said, obviously tiring of Harry's antics. "Are we done here?"

Harry stared at the two Potters for a moment before nodding to himself. He had all of the information that he needed at this point and there was an alien waiting three cells down for him. "Yep, all done. We'll be back later, so enjoy the rest of your breakfast."

"The plate and table will disappear in about an hour, so don't worry about the cleanup," Draco droned, used to saying it over and over again to new prisoners. He opened the door, the wards unlocking the door with a thought, and ushered Harry out of the room. He closed the door, but this time he didn't even have to think about the locking wards. The wards always locked automatically when the door closed, but it took a conscious thought from the dungeon workers to get the doors to unlock. This prevented the unlikely situation of a dungeon worker getting incapacitated and used to open the door. Interrogating the aliens was the only edge that they had; they weren't going to take any chances at all.

Harry leaned against the door, listening to the slightly muffled voices from within. The Potters didn't really talk about anything interesting, though, and he finally left after the male Potter sneezed. He had everything that he needed, but he still wasn't quite sure about them at this point. He didn't quite think that they were aliens, but they still were weird and unnatural. Maybe he should have added more pepper to their meal.

Harry shrugged and looked around for Draco, who had apparently wandered away from him when he was eavesdropping. He let the blond go and wandered off in order to find Eliot. It was time to get to work, again.


	3. Listening to the Gut

A/N: This chapter might explain a few more things. It's a fun chapter regardless. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Three: Listening to the Gut

* * *

Nate glanced up when Parker slipped into the room and then clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention. "Okay, what do we know?"

"Harry says that they didn't react at all to the pepper," Eliot reported. "My gut feeling says that they're human and that they have been stressing for quite some time."

"Your gut can tell that?" Parker asked.

"You can read it in their body language," Eliot answered. "They're skittish, but that could just be because whatever their plan was didn't work out."

"Man, how weird is it that pepper screws their systems up?" Hardison commented. "If their heads would explode because of a record then this would be just like Mars Attacks."

"Forget about how weird it is and just focus on the fact that it works," Eliot replied, deciding not to bother with the geek reference.

"Hardison, tell us what you've learned about the Potters," Nate interrupted, moving the meeting along.

"Right." Hardison ran his hand over his keyboard, glad that the room had been warded against magic so that his babies could run. Neal Caffrey was a blessing for those at Hogwarts who were used to Muggle technology. It helped that he was as straight as any of the Leverage team was, if you didn't count Nate. "The Potters: James and Lily Potter. They went to Hogwarts, ending their schooling right as the first Voldemort war broke out. They helped out with the fight until a prophecy was made about their newborn son and then they went into hiding. Their secret keeper betrayed them and Voldemort came a knocking on Halloween. He killed both James and Lily and tried to kill their son, Harry, but the spell backfired, as we've all heard." Hardison shook his head. "I still can't believe that we work with that guy. I mean, usually we're trying to pull one over on guys like that."

"Snape is worse," Parker informed them.

"You haven't had a class with him, Parker, and murderers are generally worse than mean teachers," Sophie lightly told Parker. "Mean teachers are easier to get back at than murderers."

"True," Parker mused, gazing off in the distance with a hint of a smile on her face.

"You do what you have to do in cases such as this, I suppose," Nate said, going back to the original question. "If being invaded by aliens doesn't change the situation, then I don't know what will."

"So, what happens if this does turn out to be the Potters?" Sophie asked.

"Harry likes us better," Parker said before anyone could reply.

"The Wizarding world would probably go apeshit," Hardison answered.

"We might have a plan," Nate absently said as he started to pace. His team watched him for a minute before he paused and whirled around to look at Eliot. "About how long will it take to figure out whether they are from an alternate world or not?"

"It shouldn't take longer than a day or so, but then, this is Harry we're talking about," Eliot answered, glancing over at Parker. "It sometimes takes him a while."

"Well, see if you can hurry him up," Nate said.

"Are you going to tell us what this is about?" Hardison asked.

"Hmm," Nate looked up as though he just noticed the others in the room, "oh, I want to see how things pan out before I say something. It wouldn't do to get our hopes up."

"So I shouldn't try to read your brain?" Parker asked.

Nate paused and looked at her. "You can do that?"

"No, but I could try." Parker offered.

"No, that's not necessary, thank you." Nate wandered over to his chair beside Sophie and sat down.

"Okay, so who wants to watch a movie? Blue Streak anyone?" Hardison asked as he held up the remote to the TV.

"It's better than your usual choice," Eliot answered after no one else protested.

"All right, someone ask a house elf for some popcorn because the movie is starting." Hardison leaned back with a grin and started the movie up.

* * *

"How was your day at work, dear?" Luna said as she went up to Harry and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"Oi, that's my job," Draco protested.

"It's nice to see you too, darling." Luna gave Draco a kiss on the cheek and then fairly skipped back to the couches.

"Is it just me or has she become crazier from hanging out with the muggle thief?" Draco asked as he and Harry found seats on the big couch. They were in one of the common rooms set up for the staff at Hogwarts. Hogwarts had become a refuge for all of the people who survived the attacks; therefore there were more than just students sharing the house common rooms. Then again, Draco, Harry, and most of the others in their year were no longer students anymore. Instead they worked for the council and they had taken over this particular staff room.

"I think anyone who's been in contact with her for more than a couple minutes have changed," Neville answered, "it's just some people have changed more than others; including your boy there." Neville nodded towards Harry, who was happily knitting something.

"True." Draco nodded to himself. Harry had already been not quite sane before the Leverage team had come along and Parker had just added a new depth to that insanity. In fact, Draco thought that all of the Leverage team members were insane; all for different reasons and different levels, but insane none-the-less.

"You'll want to purl the next row," Hermione reminded Harry, not even looking up from her book. She had taken up research for the council even before the Leverage team and Riddle had arrived at Hogwarts. Since then, she had switched sides in the council and went on to working with the Leverage team. Supposedly Hardison had taught her everything he could about computers after she had helped with the warding of the rooms and she in turn helped him with all of the book research. The Hacker might be great with finding out muggle information, but Hermione was still the best in finding magical information.

"Right." Harry nodded his head as he continued working on whatever he was knitting. Given the size of his needles, Draco thought that it might be another tiny rabbit to be added to the army that the Boy-Who-Lived had already knitted. Hermione knitted hats and Harry knitted rabbits.

Draco rolled his eyes, remembering the fuss that had went on between the council before the Leverage team effectively took over on the issue. Riddle had been interested in Harry and the way that Harry just seemed to know whether there was something wrong with a person. In the beginning, they had caught several aliens thanks to his feelings. Riddle wanted to work with Harry, have him on his side of the council. McGonagall had refused; she might be willing to work with the Dark Lord, but that didn't mean that she trusted him with her prized student. Riddle had been halfway ready to storm off when Mr. Ford came up with a solution. The Leverage team was going to be the go between for the other two sides of the council and they were going to be dealing with a wide range of stuff. Therefore, the Mastermind suggested that Harry and a few others work for him. The other two sides reluctantly agreed and then they proceeded to divide up the sixth and seventh years.

Luna started humming a Christmas carol and Harry joined in. Luna worked with Parker exclusively, although no one really knew just what the two of them did. Harry had said that he let them down into the Chamber of Secrets once and Draco kind of suspected that they were going to go into the third floor corridor that had been forbidden in his first year. The two blondes fit together perfectly, though - they were both bloody insane.

Ron entered the room and flopped down beside Hermione, grunting out a greeting to everyone. Ron and Neville worked together managing the Great Hall, which had become something more than a dining hall. The council may have the War room, but they depended on the Great Hall for everything. All of the information coming in from their teams outside of Hogwarts, everyone actually entering the castle, and actually most of the strategy making went on in the Great Hall.

"You look more tired than usual," Draco noted when he finally looked at Ron.

"Something big is going down and we're recalling everyone in our sector," Ron replied and most of the people in the room turned to look at him. Luna and Harry were the only two that didn't, focused on their own little worlds.

"They're planning something?" Draco asked, thinking of both the aliens and of the Council. The Council stayed right beside the aliens in terms of intelligence and sometimes the Council even pulled ahead in the race and won against the aliens. Nathan Ford had a lot to do with that as well as all of the other masterminds that they found around the world. Surprisingly, a great deal of those masterminds turned out to be muggles. But then, the aliens had changed things so that muggles and wizards were simply thought of as humans.

Ron shrugged. "The Council put a rush on it and things have been kind of hyper around here. I think one of our spies has found something out and it probably isn't good."

"Well, there's nothing we can do except to wait," Neville said. With magic, everyone would be back at Hogwarts by the end of the next day and they would learn what was going on.

"You could always knit while you wait, you know," Harry said. "Our troops need knitted things."

"Like rabbit armies?" Draco asked as he raised his eyebrow.

"I'll have you know that several lives were saved because of my rabbit armies." Harry stuck his nose up in the air before looking back down at his knitting.

Draco sighed and took the knitting needles handed to him by Hermione. There was already a halfway started rabbit on the needles from the day before and he continued it. Ron snickered at him until he found himself being handed needles by Luna. Neville capitulated and took up knitting needles on his own. Luna didn't knit, but only because she was busy sewing pieces together. And that was how their evening was spent.


	4. Bunny Nugget

A/N: Why yes, this is insane.

* * *

Chapter Four: Bunny Nugget

* * *

James paced the small cell that they were in; Lily, seated on their bed, was ignoring him. "It's been over a day and we still haven't talked to anyone," he ranted. Sure, they had been fed both lunch and dinner by the same two boys as from breakfast, but other than that they hadn't seen anyone. James was getting tired of receiving the runaround. No matter how many times they had asked, they still hadn't seen the leader for this Hogwarts: this world. Their own world would be worrying soon and they had yet to do anything at all but lounge around in a jail cell.

The door cracked open a minute later and James twisted around to face it. Just like the previous meals, Twirly and Whirly entered the room and put the tray of food down on a conjured table. Unlike previous meals, the door remained open just long enough for an army of little toy rabbits to enter the room. James had opened his mouth to demand to see the person in charge, but the words stuck in his throat as he stared at the toy rabbits in disbelief. "What are those?" he asked instead.

"Twirly's obsession," Whirly answered.

"But, what are they?" James shuddered as he looked at the strange things. He had done some pretty strange things, but those hopping toy rabbits just looked freaky.

"Bunny nuggets," Twirly chirped out, looking way too hyper. "I knitted them myself."

"You knit?" James raised his eyebrow as he regarded Twirly. "Somehow I can see that."

Whirly rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. Twirly gathered up three of the bunny nuggets and watched them wiggle around in his hands.

"So," James trailed off, not really sure what was going on. He remembered his earlier complaints and spoke, "When are we going to talk to someone in charge? We've been here for over a day and we've waited patiently," Lily snorted behind him and James corrected himself. "Mostly patiently, but we really do need to speak with your leader."

"You know, aliens talk like that in old films," Twirly said as he stared at them suspiciously.

"What?" James asked, completely confused. Twirly stared at him for a long while, coming up really close to him. One of the bunny nuggets leaped and tumbled down James' chest. Twirly didn't even notice, so busy staring at James' face. James tried to Occlude his mind, what little of the magic that he could do, but he didn't fell any kind of intrusion. The boy was just staring at him.

"You know, I think you might be telling the truth." Twirly nodded to himself as he stepped back. He then tilted his head toward Whirly.

Whirly took a step forward, finally focusing on the two of them. "Our leaders are very interested in talking to you, but first we wanted to be sure that you are who you say you are."

"So tell us who you are," Twirly said.

James looked at the two of them before turning back to look at Lily. "We're James and Lily Potter from another universe, as we've told you already," James started talking. He had really wanted to first say this to whoever was in charge, but it was obvious that the two boys were currently in charge of the situation and they weren't going to be able to move forward until they explained everything. "We are in the middle of a war against Voldemort. You should know who he is." James looked to his wife to explain the next part.

"Oh?" Whirly asked, also looking towards Lily.

"We chose this world out of thousands, if not millions. We wanted a world that could relate to our world, even though the theory of choosing is hard to do, but we wanted a world that could help us. So, we made Voldemort be a keyword in our search for a new world, most specifically at the turning point of the war," Lily answered. "Halloween 1981."

James watched carefully to see how the two boys reacted to the date. Whirly seemed to recognize it, but Twirly didn't react at all, focused on the bunnies in his hand. Then again, he really didn't expect Twirly to react as that was just the way the boy was: lost in his own world.

"We wanted to know if there was anything that you guys know about Voldemort that could help us," James continued once the moment was over.

"He hates the color red," Twirly said. Whirly didn't look too happy, but he didn't argue with the bit of information.

"We'll talk to some people and see what we can do," Whirly answered before herding Twirly and the bunny nugget army out of the room.

"Do you think that we'll actually see anyone anytime soon?" James asked as he stared at the door.

"They at least didn't seem to suspect us of whatever they had against us," Lily answered, also looking toward the door. "Did you see how they reacted to our story?"

"Whirly knows something; it's hard to tell what Twirly thinks," James answered.

Lily sighed. "It's no use thinking about it, either we will see someone or we won't."

"Time for breakfast, then?" James asked as he finally picked up the tray and carried it back to the bed.

"Time for breakfast," Lily confirmed.

James sighed and resigned himself to another boring day. Something attacked his foot and he looked down to see a stray bunny nugget. "Perfect."

* * *

Nate motioned Harry over as soon as the boy entered the meeting hall. Harry separated from Draco and came over, a trail of bunnies behind him. Nate ignored the knitted and charmed rabbits as he focused on the former Gryffindor.

"So?" Parker chirped as she and the rest of the team gathered around Nate and Harry.

"You know, I think they might actually be human," Harry answered. He frowned, halfway serious as he pondered the supposed travelers. "They didn't react to the pepper, didn't try to break the door down, didn't switch disguises, and didn't react to anything that we did."

"There's also the fact that they seem to believe that Dumbledore is in charge of things," Eliot added. "They got a bit annoyed when he didn't come down on the first night and they seemed to think that he could solve all of their problems."

"That is another point for them being real," Sophie mused. She looked around at the team. "They wouldn't know that he's dead if their Dumbledore was alive."

"Do you think they know about the aliens?" Harry asked as he contemplated the hole in his socks. They were getting a bit worn; maybe he should have worn shoes? "They seemed a bit surprised at how things worked around here and they're up against Voldemort."

"Time was when you were only worried about Voldemort," Sophie pointed out.

"So, alternate worlds are possible?" Hardison asked with a grin on his face.

"At this point I wouldn't be surprised," Nate dryly answered. "Now, are you positive?"

"Short of dunking them in a vat of pepper spray." Harry shrugged. "Are you going to let us in on the plan anytime soon, Nate-poppa?"

"Yeah, yeah," Nate waved Harry off as the last of the people trickled into the room. He and Sophie left the team to head to their places at the Council table. He and Sophie sat down in between Riddle and McGonagall, as they usually did. He waited for everyone to sit down before he stood up again to call the meeting into order. "Good, we're all here. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why we've recalled everyone in our sector and I'll leave it to Minerva to explain everything."

"Thank you." McGonagall stood up while Nate sat down. "As some of you might know, our spy in the aliens' forces has made a report to the lead team in America. The message that we received from them was very grave."

Riddle stood up when McGonagall fell silent. "The aliens have grown tired of the fight, but they are not the type to just give up. They plan to bomb the planet again. This time to take out as many people as they can out in one blow."

McGonagall took the narrative up once more. "The forces in America and Antarctica are already shuttling people off of the planet, but that is slow going. They have to coordinate between the two Gates and they only have the 38 minute window per trip."

"Before you panic, they aren't planning on letting us die," Riddle said before anyone could respond. "We have more than our fair share of Americans with us, after all. But, it will be a while before they get to us, but we will get out."

"So, don't worry, but I still want everyone to start packing. Most of us are wizards, so I expect anything that is useful to be packed up and shrunken for easy carry. We don't know when we will get the order to move out, but we need to be quick when we do so," Nate said before motioning for any questions. The room exploded into sound, as everyone tried to talk over everyone else.

Riddle finally shot out a flare that exploded with a loud pop, startling everyone into silence. The wizard might be working to keep them safe and people might even trust him to do that, but that didn't mean that they weren't wary about what he would do if they pissed him off. "One at a time, if you would please. Director heads first."

"So, is this like the apocalypse?" Shawn Spencer asked, despite the fact that he wasn't in charge of a team.

"The end of the world?" Parker asked. She wrinkled her nose. "I always thought that was going to be because of the zombies."

"Apopalips? The Apopalips is coming?" Harry's eyes were wide. "When is it happening? Because we're having soup on Tuesday and I don't want to miss it because of the Apopalips."

"I would like to get some stuff done before the Apopalips," Shawn mused.

"Our spy didn't know when the aliens were planning their attack, just that they were planning one. He's still among their forces, trying to gather up more information," McGonagall answered.

"Do you think that the aliens are ready for the Apopalips? Will they recall their troops?" Harry asked.

"We're going to have to double our watch on the aliens that we have in our hold, but we also have to remember to act as usual. We don't want the aliens suspecting that we know anything," Nate said.

"Do you think that they noticed our movements when we returned to the castle?" Peter Burke asked.

"We've done this before, so they shouldn't be too worried. Besides, for all they know, you simply moved on to another place; they can't see Hogwarts, after all," Hardison spoke up.

"Do you think I should name this one Pink Toes?" Harry asked the room at large while holding up his newly knitted bunny.

"Sounds like the perfect name for him," Parker answered when no one else did.

Harry silently counted his bunnies as he put Pink Toes down and frowned when he noticed that Blue Nose was missing. "I'll be back. Tell me about the Apopalips later?"

"Sure," Parker replied. Harry left most of his bunnies with the thief and started backtracking to find the missing one.


	5. Missing Bunny and Minds

A/N: More insanity.

* * *

Chapter Five: Missing Bunny and Minds

* * *

It had to be down in the dungeons, which was where he had spent his day. Still, for the most part, the bunnies were charmed to follow him over other people, which meant that it wasn't lost in the corridors. That only left one of the cells and the only cell he had gone into was Lily and James' cell.

Harry shrugged and went over to peer in the window in the door. Even if one of the Potters were staring at the window, he wouldn't be seen and then he could just see if his bunny was there or if it had been kidnapped by someone. Lily was seated on the bed, like she usually was and James was pacing, almost as usual. This time the male Potter had a small toy following behind him.

Harry brightened up and threw the door open. "There you are," he exclaimed as he entered the room. James started in surprise, not expecting Harry's return until lunchtime. Harry ignored them as he picked up the rabbit and half scolded, half apologized to it.

"So, are we going to see anyone anytime soon?" James asked, scowling at him.

Harry blinked. "The rooms are not supposed to make you blind. Do you want me to get a doctor or some pepper or anything?"

"I want to see someone in charge," James replied.

"Twirly, we were really hoping to see someone soon," Lily took over, her voice calm and sweet. "Our people are going to get worried soon and we wanted to get everything talked through before they did so."

"Your people?" Harry asked, a bit curious. He still was fairly sure that they were telling the truth and that they were human at least. Still, he wanted to be completely sure before he told Nate.

"Our leader, Professor Dumbledore, our friends, Sirius and Remus, and our daughter," Lily answered.

Harry nodded to himself, he recognized all of the names, though he did wonder about the daughter part of it. He definitely wasn't their son if he was their daughter in the other world. OF course, that had him wondering how he could be their daughter. Was he naturally born a female or did he just act that way? How far along in surgeries was he? Did he really want to know? "Your daughter?" he found himself asking.

"Zoe, she's just a year or two younger than you are," Lily answered.

Not him then, thank god, Harry thought to himself. He tried to let it go, but the voices were telling him to ask, "What about the name Harry?"

"Harry for a girl?" James wrinkled his forehead, "Well, I suppose she was just a bit hairy when she came out, but, no, we went with Zoe. Zoe Potter."

"So, what is your world like?" Harry asked. He conjured himself up a misshapen chair and clambered into it. He hugged the throw pillow to his chest as he watched the two with eager eyes.

James hesitated before he sat down on the bed next to his wife. "It used to be a nice, peaceful place, but then it just started getting darker. Voldemort started his reign of terror when we were still in school. It got so bad that we didn't even think about having children with him around."

"We wanted to," Lily softly said, "but there were already enough people pregnant and we needed to keep them safe. It turned out later to be a good thing."

"On Halloween night, he attacked the Longbottoms. Frank was tortured into insanity while Alice was killed trying to protect her son, Neville. The Dark Lord tried to kill Neville, but the killing curse bounced off on him and hit Voldemort. Voldemort vanished for a couple of years, but when he came back he was meaner than ever," James continued.

"And what of the sporks?" Harry asked. "Do you have sporks in your world?"

"Sporks?" James asked, confused at the non sequitur.

"You know, a cross between a spoon and a fork?" Harry asked, gesturing even though one couldn't actually represent a spork with their hands.

"I know what a spork is," James replied.

"Then does your world have them?" Harry asked.

"If I know what a spork is, doesn't that mean that my world has them?" James asked in return.

"Not necessarily," Harry countered, "You could have gotten the idea from all of your trips to your alternate worlds."

"We've only made one trip and that was to your universe," James answered.

"But you could have made it to a world populated solely by sporks," Harry said, not really listening to James.

"But we didn't," James replied, utterly confused and slightly annoyed at this point.

"But you could have. Where there was a huge war between the spoons and the forks until one couple came together and created sporks. Sporks were the newest thing, everyone had to have one, and there was peace in the land." Harry threw his hands up in the air.

"Er, that might be possible, although I honestly doubt that silverware could ever be sentient enough to have a war, but we didn't go to that world. We've only been here, which is why we do wish to talk to someone, you know. Other than you," James said, finally breaking through to Harry.

"You mean Whirly?" Harry asked, perking up. He halfway wondered if Draco had even noticed he was missing. But then, he had tripped over the Slytherin's feet, so he supposed that Draco probably did know that he had left the meeting. "He's a bit busy right now, but I suppose I could drag him away."

"Not Whirly," James answered. "We've talked to Whirly before and we want to talk to someone different."

"Some people say that Parker's a bit different, but we always laugh at those people," Harry mused to himself. Parker probably wasn't like normal people, but then there were plenty of other non normal people at Hogwarts, including Harry, so it never bothered them.

"Who's Parker?" James asked, hoping that whoever Parker was wasn't twelve years old or so. He was getting tired of talking to teenagers, even if they did seem to have some authority in this place.

"She's my sister," Harry chirped. "But she's busy right now. In fact, everyone's a bit busy right now. There's a very important chess match going on and no one can miss it." Harry frowned. "I should probably get back."

"Wait," James exclaimed. "When are we going to see someone?"

"Probably when you open your eyes," Harry said before he picked up the knitted bunny. He grinned at them before walking over to the door. "Don't worry; someone will see you at some point. We rarely lose our prisoners anymore."

Harry left, laughing at the spluttering that James was doing before heading back to the meeting. "Looks like they are my kind of almost parents after all," he told the knitted bunny in his hands. He shrugged. "I still like Nate-poppa and Sophie-momma better."

* * *

Harry waited until the meeting was over before he talked to Nate about his final conclusions. The entire Leverage team, along with the strays that they managed to pick up at Hogwarts, headed back to the magic resistant room to talk after the meeting. They all sprawled on the couches and chairs that surrounded the tv monitors in a half circle. Harry and Luna curled up together with Parker and waited for the team to settle down.

"Harry has something to say," Parker announced.

"Yes?" Nate looked up and over to Harry.

"Well, I left the meeting to go find my lost bunny," Harry began and waited for everyone to stop nodding. He supposed he had created enough noise in leaving that everyone had seen, although the Leverage team was one to keep an eye on one another. "I tracked it down to the Potter's cell. Remember when I said that I was almost positive that they were actually real? Well, I think I'm now kind of positive about it."

"What makes you say so?" Hardison asked.

"I talked to them. They want to talk to someone other than me or Draco, but I said that we were all busy." Harry shrugged. "They told me about their world. Their leader is Dumbledore and they have friends named Sirius and Remus, just like this world, and they have a daughter and sporks."

"Sporks are very important," Luna said.

"They are," Harry agreed.

"Can we get back to the daughter part, because that doesn't sound right," Parker said. "This is your kind of almost parents, right? Which makes you kind of almost their son, right? And you're supposed to be a boy, Harry, not a girl."

"They don't have me," Harry answered, grinning at the fact that Parker though the same things as he did. "They waited and had a girl a few years later; Zoe Potter."

"They mentioned, Halloween, right? Wasn't that when you became that big celebrity in the magical world?" Hardison asked. "What happened if you weren't there?"

"Neville's the boy-who-lived instead of me," Harry answered with a shrug. The Leverage team only sort of remembered when Neville was a shy boy. The Gryffindor had stepped up when the world really started falling apart and became extremely competent. Harry wondered what the other Neville was like in the alternate world.

"Okay, so this is real, they are from another universe." Hardison frowned. "How is that possible? Have they created a rift in the universe? Are we going to be seeing the 'ghosts' of the Cybermen?"

"That's what I want you to find out," Nate said. He blinked as he registered the rest of what Hardison was saying and corrected himself. "I want to know how this is possible."

"I don't think they'll tell me," Harry replied. "They seem to be tired of talking to me. Maybe they'll want to talk to Luna?"

"I don't think they'll want to talk to Luna, dear," Sophie answered.

"No, but they will talk to you," Nate said as he turned to look at Sophie. "I want you to talk to them and find out how exactly they travel between worlds. Don't let on about our situation, but try to figure out what their situation is."

"Walk the fine line between questioning them and promising to help." Sophie nodded her understanding. "Shall I talk to them after lunch?"

"That'll work." Nate nodded to her.

"You have a plan," Parker said as she stared at Nate.

"A plan?" Nate gave them a confused and innocent look.

"You have a plan on how to survive the Apopalips." Parker gave him a smug look.

Nate sighed. "We might not need it, but just in case," he trailed off.

Parker clapped her hands together. "We're going to survive the Apopalips."

"Why are we calling it Apopalips anyway?" Hardison questioned.

"Because I can't pronounce it any other way?" Harry offered.

"Because it's amusing?" Parker added.

"Because the aliens have fat lips and we call Nate Poppa?" Luna asked. Everyone blinked at that, but brushed it off. They were used to Luna's strange comments by now.

"How hard is it to say Apocalypse?" Eliot questioned. He had worked with Parker for years and Harry for at least a year - he still wasn't totally used to their weird ways.

"Apopalips, apopaclips, Apop is more fun," Harry tried before shrugging and giving up.

"So when should I pack my baby up?" Hardison asked, changing the subject as he picked his keyboard up.

"When Hermione and Neal have some free time is when you should do it," Nate advised. "The SGC has gotten used to communicating by magic and we won't know when we'll have to leave."

"I can't wait to see their faces when they find out that we're still alive," Parker snickered.

"Well, hopefully they won't know that we survived," Nate said.

"They're getting bored with us, which is why they decided to bomb us now," Sophie reasoned, "So they might just leave after checking that their bombs got everyone."

"This is going to be good," Parker said, still grinning. They laughed and tried not to think of the stragglers that refused to live at one of the bases. There will be some deaths with that move, but it was the aliens' move and they couldn't save anyone. At least this way there would be some people still left alive.

"Let's head to lunch," Sophie suggested.


	6. Meeting After Lunch

A/N: And some more insanity.

* * *

Chapter Six: Meeting After Lunch

* * *

Draco joined Sophie and Harry after lunch and they headed down to the dungeons. They had elected to feed the Potters by house elves, so that they would have eaten before Sophie came to talk to them. Harry and Draco entered the room first, smirking as James slumped down in disappointment. The man perked back up when Sophie entered the room.

"Finally," he exclaimed. "We've been in here for two days and the only people we've seen are these two."

"Hello," Sophie said, smiling at them and not bothering to reply to the exclamation. "I'm Sophie Devereaux, one of the people in charge here at Hogwarts. Now, I'm told that you two are an alternate universe?"

"That's right," James said as he stepped forward to shake her hand. "I'm James Potter and this is my wife, Lily."

"It's nice to meet you," Lily said as she got up from the bed and stepped up to Sophie.

"Nice to meet the two of you, too," Sophie said as she shook Lily's hand.

"I don't know a Sophie Devereaux in our world," James said as he stared curiously at Sophie.

"Ah, I'm new here, I went to school at Beauxbaton; do you have that school in your universe?" Sophie asked. She stepped forward and Draco conjured her and the Potters straight backed chairs. Knowing Harry, he would have conjured Sophie a really weird chair and made the Potters sit on the bed and that just wasn't right for this type of a meeting.

"Oh, yes, I'm just surprised to see you here. Then again, I suppose that it is possible for your universe to have a better relationship," James said. He and Lily sat down and waited while Sophie sat down in her chair. Draco leaned against the wall, watching the meeting in interest. Harry sat down on the floor besides Draco and waited for things to get interesting.

"Things do seem to be a bit different in this world rather than yours. I've heard some things about your world from Twirly and Whirly," Sophie paused for a split second before continuing, "I believe that your world is in a bit of trouble?"

"I assume that you've heard of Voldemort, as we never got questioned on that subject," Lily answered.

"We do know of this individual," Sophie replied.

"I don't know how active he is in this universe, but in ours he has almost total control of the UK," Lily said. "Every time we try to fight back, we're just hit harder than ever. He's taken over the Ministry and now he and his followers are holding Hogwarts under a siege. There's no one in our world that can help us and we can't last too much longer."

"So, you decided to travel to another universe to ask for help?" Sophie asked, raising her eyebrow.

"A little unorthodox, yes, but as we've already said, there was no one on our world who could help," Lily replied. She stared at Sophie for a moment before continuing. "So we came here, but you're not going to help us, are you?"

"What?" James blurted out, looking from his wife over to Sophie and back again.

"What makes you say that?" Sophie asked.

"You have something just as serious going on, don't you?" Lily asked. "It's taken days for someone to come down to talk to us and when someone does show up, it's someone that we don't know rather than the friends from our alternates in this world."

"Or our alternates in this world," James interjected, "I know that I would be curious if another me showed up in my universe and I know that Sirius should be even more curious."

"I do admit that we had suspicions as to whether you were from an alternate universe or not, but who says that we aren't planning on helping you out?" Sophie asked, trying to salvage the meeting.

"Your suspicions for one. Why would you help us out if you're in the position to worry about something like that? And you are worried more than just for Polyjuice or glamours," Lily shook her head, "I just have the feeling that you are not in the position to be able to help us."

"We would like to hear more about how you traveled to our world and how you plan to head back, with or without our help," Sophie said. She smiled at them to soften her last words. "We figure that you must have a plan to get back, but we would like to know it before we commit to it. We wouldn't want our people to be stranded in your world."

"We used a ritual-type spell designed to bridge the gap between our two worlds. It's as easy as stepping through a portal and we'll be able to set it up for whatever help you can give us, even if it is simply information that we bring back. But, if you do send some of your people, we can send them back using our original spell," Lily answered.

"I'll talk to my superiors about your request and get back to you as soon as I can," Sophie said, deciding to end the meeting on a good note. She didn't want to press too hard after Lily's earlier comments. She got up from the chair, but turned around to say her goodbyes. Harry got up and scrambled behind her, joining up with Draco near the wall.

"Can you help us?" James asked, staring at Sophie in almost a glare.

"We shall see," Sophie demurred.

"No, I want to know now, can you help us? Because, so far this world has felt wrong and if you aren't going to help us, then we need to go to a universe that can before we run out of time," James demanded. "So, tell us what's going on or let us go."

"Pardon me?" Sophie asked, raising her eyebrow at James.

"You heard me. Tell us why we are locked down in the dungeons and why our friends or our alternates, aren't here to see us," James replied.

Sophie stared him down before relenting. "It's true that we aren't under the best of circumstances and those do give us a reason to lock you up like this, but we aren't planning on keeping you here for forever. And while we have not committed to anything, it does not mean that we will not help you at all."

James scoffed. "I doubt that your world is in that much trouble. You probably don't feel like dealing with Voldemort; scared the lot of you."

Harry frowned. "I don't think I like you."

"You have no idea what our world is like," Sophie said, ignoring Harry's grumblings behind her. "Frankly, I would prefer to deal with Voldemort over the enemy that we are fighting now."

"No one can be worse than Voldemort," James protested. "Do you have any idea how many of us he's killed? How many he will kill? I'm lucky to have my family mostly intact, not many people have that in our world."

Sophie leveled a hard stare at James. She could get into a whole 'my villain is worse than yours' argument and win hands down, but it might be best to just show him. People always worked better with visual aids, which was why people were so easy to con. You simply had to just show a person what they expected or wanted and they would fall for the con in a second. The same theory worked for arguments such as this. Sophie smiled at them, a vicious smile showing off her teeth. "You were wondering where your friends were, right? Sirius Black and Remus Lupin?"

"You know where they are?" James perked up in hope.

"I can show them to you, if you are sure that you want to see," Sophie said. She was sure that if the earbuds had worked at Hogwarts, she would have received an admonishment from Nate for this plan. However, he wasn't there and she brushed the thought out of her mind.

"What do you mean by that?" James demanded, clenching his fists as he perceived a threat.

"You were wondering about our enemy and, sad as it is to say, Sirius Black is the perfect example of the horrors they can produce." Sophie nodded to Draco to check and see if the coast was clear for a field trip. The Potters didn't seem to notice, trying to understand what she had just told them.

Draco entered the room a second later, nodding to her the go ahead. She and Harry herded the Potters out of the room, as they were still stunned by her words. Harry took up the lead as Sophie and Draco kept an eye on their two prisoners.

* * *

Harry almost skipped as he took the long way around to the solitary wards of the infirmary. He hadn't seen his godfather in a while, as work had steadily increased for him. He knew that Sirius really didn't notice his absence, but he still felt bad enough to feel eager to see the man.

He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't looking forward to seeing his almost kind of parents' reaction to his godfather. He had gotten upset when he heard the male Potter's claim that their Voldemort was so bad compared to the aliens. Harry knew the insides of the aliens' minds and he knew the inside of Riddle's mind; the two were not alike. Voldemort was very much human, despite his tries for immortality, and the aliens were so totally not human. Riddle might have killed for pleasure once upon a time, but the aliens didn't even care that they were wiping out several thousand people in one strike.

He would honestly love to shove James inside one of their prisoner's cells and show him just how strange the aliens were, but that would be a major breach in security. Yes, they had precautions in place, but they still rarely interacted with the aliens. So, Sophie went for the next best thing. It would be a little cruel to introduce the Potters to the aliens in this manner, but they were all about the shock factor.

Harry brightened when they reached the door to Sirius' quarters. He slipped inside the room first, knowing that the others would wait until he gave the all clear. Remus glanced up when he entered the room, looking exhausted even as he smiled at Harry. Sirius was also in the room, but he didn't even seem to notice Harry's presence, focusing on his drawing.

"I would have thought that you would be working, especially with everything that's going on," Remus said.

"I am working. Sophie wants to show the almost Potters Sirius, do you think he can handle it?" Harry asked. Sirius switched crayons and went back to coloring what seemed like a giant swirl of black and brown with bits of rainbow flecked in.

"He's been fairly calm today, focused solely on what he's doing now," Remus answered after thinking for a moment. He nodded to himself. "I would like to set up a sound ward to block out loud noises, but it should be okay."

"Will you be okay?" Harry asked, crouching down to look up at Remus' face.

"I'll be fine," Remus answered. He hesitated, glancing towards the door. "So, they actually are? How's that possible?"

"Socks," Harry answered. He grinned at the face Remus made at him. "Anything is possible, we just haven't figured everything out to know how it is possible. They seemed to have found a way to travel through alternate worlds and they are feisty. Seem to think that Riddle is worse than even Snape."

Remus chuckled. "You still think that Snape is worse than the aliens?"

Harry solemnly nodded. "We have to see Snape every day and there is no escaping him. The aliens may be otherworldly, but Snape is just pure evil."

Remus rolled his eyes and stood up. As Harry clambered back to his feet, Remus cast a sound barrier around Sirius. Sirius would be fine with having the Potters in the room, even interacting with them, but he would freak out with any loud noise. He had been shocked when Sirius first was returned in that state with the mind of what reminded them of an autistic child, so he imagined that the alternate Potters would be surprised and react badly.

Remus took a deep breath to steady himself, halfway wondering how he would react to seeing his once dead friends in the flesh. At least they were not aliens in disguise, he reminded himself. He nodded towards Harry to let them in.

Harry bounced towards the door and flung it open, motioning for the group to join them. He then went back to sit down at Sirius' low table to join him in coloring.

"Hello, Remus," Sophie greeted as she entered the room.

"Hello, Sophie," Remus replied. He smiled at her, but his eyes were zoned in on the alternate Potters.

Since he spoke, James and Lily focused on him before they saw Sirius. James broke into a relieved smile. "Finally, someone we know," he exclaimed as he took a step forward.

"You haven't seen anyone that you know?" Remus asked, blinking a little in surprise.

"We haven't' seen anything but these two and only her today," James said as he motioned towards Harry, Draco, and Sophie. While he was motioning, his eyes fell onto Sirius and he gasped. "Padfoot!"

Sirius didn't react to the call, probably only hearing a muffled version through the spell. He simply traded crayons with Harry, barely reacting to him as he did so. He took the green crayon and started drawing the same spiral as he always did. The green showed up against the muddy blackness of the previous dark colors in some spots, but for the most part it just blended in like ground in dirt.

James glanced over at Remus before taking an uncertain step forward. "Padfoot? Sirius? What's going on?" James asked Remus as he crouched down in front of the table.

Sirius still didn't react, even when James reached forward and waved his hand in front of Sirius' eyes. Harry watched this in interest, making sure that his almost kind of father didn't try anything. "He doesn't like to be touched," Harry warned.

"What's wrong with him?" James asked, staring at Sirius, horrified.

"The aliens got to him," Harry answered. He stopped watching James and went back to coloring in his picture. "He was spying on them as best as he could and they found out. They weren't happy, but they were curious about him. It took a while before he was rescued and he's been like this ever since."

"Can't anyone do anything?" Lily asked, also moving forward until she was crouched down next to her husband.

"His mind has gone into hiding, but there is also the fact that they did something to his brain. We don't have anything to fix it just yet, but we haven't given up," Remus answered. The spy that was their inside man, who had done so much for them, gave them hope for a way to heal Sirius, but he wasn't going to tell that to the alternate Potters. He may not work beyond watching over Sirius anymore, but that didn't mean that he would spill what they didn't know and they probably didn't know about the Stargates or the hopes that they gave them.

"The cruciatus curse drives people into insanity, but we haven't seen it used that often. Voldemort seems to prefer using inferi over keeping anyone alive," Lily said.

"This is something completely different," Remus replied. "The nerves in the brain are still functioning and there, they're just reporting the wrong information. With Sirius, sometimes he just doesn't have those nerves."

"They've done much worse than this, which is the reason that we cannot promise our help," Sophie said. She thought a while longer before nodding to herself. "Follow me and I'll take you to someone that we can discuss this with."

"Someone in charge?" James asked, tearing his eyes away from Sirius to stand up.

"Sophie-mom is in charge," Harry said as he rolled his eyes. He put his crayon down and reached forward to tap Sirius on the top of his hand. "Hey, I'm heading out, Sirius; I'll be back later, okay?"

Sirius looked up at that and brightened when he saw who was across from him. "Harry! The sporks have spoken and the prawns are on for tomorrow!"

"I'm looking forward to it… Tell the sporks I said hello," Harry replied.

"Spaghetti-o's," Sirius agreed before turning back to his drawing.

Harry glared when he saw the look that James was giving Sirius. Though it may sound like gibberish to the initiated, Harry knew there was sense in what Sirius was telling him. Somewhere there was sense in it, Harry just hadn't found it yet. Sirius had survived Azkaban with only a mild case of insanity and he was still alive and semi functioning when so many others had died after the aliens experimented on them. That had to count for something.

Harry waved goodbye to Remus as the five of them left the room. Once again, Harry took the lead, but this time he dashed down the hall, sent ahead as a messenger. Nate's plans were all coming together, but he could still use a warning. It was time to steal something completely different in order to save the world.


	7. The Decision

A/N: I do hope that some things are beginning to come clear, or that my readers are at least enjoying the insanity.

* * *

Chapter Seven: The Decision

* * *

Nate was looking over the evacuation plans when Harry darted in. He sighed when he heard that Sophie was bringing the Potters to him, but he figured that she knew better than anyone when a mark was hooked. It was time to reel the Potters in and then steal their world.

Sophie, Malfoy, and the Potters entered the room a few moments after Harry did. The rest of his team trooped in seconds later, taking their usual seats around the room. Nate stood up to focus the Potter's attention on to him. "It's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you. I'm Nathan Ford, one of the leaders around here."

"What happened to Dumbledore?" the male Potter asked.

"Ah, I'm afraid that he's no longer with us," Nate said, faking sorrow. "A lot of people are no longer with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Mrs. Potter said.

"I hear you're dealing with close to the same problems yourselves?" Nate asked.

"Voldemort," Mr. Potter spat out. He fixed Nate with a glare. "Look, we've been given the run around and now I would like an answer: are you going to help us or not?"

"We would like to help you," Nate said, going as blunt as Mr. Potter had been, "But we want you to do something for us first."

"What could we do for you?" Mr. Potter asked in a skeptical voice.

"We would like your world to host us here at Hogwarts for a short duration," Nate answered.

"What? You mean the whole castle?" Mr. Potter asked, startled.

"That would be several hundred people, would it not?" Mrs. Potter asked, just as startled as her husband.

"Close to nine hundred," Sophie answered.

"Yeah, and we're lucky that we have that many people," Eliot added.

"What makes you think that we're in the position to host nine hundred people?" Mr. Potter asked.

"Why?" Mrs. Potter asked, staring deeply at Nate.

"To be blunt: our world is about to end," Nate answered. "We won't have time for Hogwarts to get to safety, so we've been forced to come up with a different plan. Luckily, you came at a good time."

"Your world is about to end?" Mr. Potter looked stunned.

"Yet, you said that you only needed our world to host you for a short duration?" Mrs. Potter brought up.

"The aliens plan to get rid of all intelligent life on earth before they move on," Nate answered. "They'll be up in their fancy ships when they release their bombs and they won't realize that several of our bases are empty. Going to your world is not the only plan we have, but it's one that we need to use for Hogwarts."

"Why can't you use the other plans?" Mr. Potter asked.

"It would require us to move all nine hundred of us to either Antarctica or America and we just don't have the ability to do so before the aliens go ahead with their attack," Sophie answered. "Best case scenario would be to get half of our people off base and to safety before the bombs fall."

"We would like it if one hundred percent of our people make it to safety," Nate said.

"What's to keep you from taking over our world?" Mr. Potter asked, his voice sharp.

"There's this thing called Entropic Cascade Failure, which happens when multiple versions of the same person are in a single reality," Hardison answered. "Normally this occurs within forty-eight hours after a person gets to an alternate reality, but in your case your doubles have been dead for over fifteen years. Now, I assume that Sirius Black is alive in your world?"

"Yes," Mr. Potter said, sounding a bit hoarse.

"Then Black can't stay in your world for too long; luckily we only need to stay for a day or so. On the other hand, you don't have any kids named Harry, do you?" Hardison asked, obviously focused only on his explanation. Nate exchanged a glance with Sophie, but decided to let Hardison reveal the truth about Harry. It could help them out, after all.

"No," Mr. Potter asked, clearly looking curious, "but that's the second time someone has mentioned a Harry connected to us."

"You don't have a son named Harry, which means that our Harry Potter could probably live for years before the entropy catches up to him," Hardison finished.

"Harry Potter?" Mr. Potter asked, looking like they had pole axed him once again.

"Here," Harry called out

"Son of Lily and James Potter," Eliot said.

"And part of the Leverage family," Parker added.

"Our son?" Mr. Potter asked.

"Almost kind of," Harry corrected. "You're from an alternate world, it would never make out."

"Harry holds an important job here at Hogwarts; he would be one of the last ones to leave Hogwarts," Nate threw in. He knew right then that they had finally caught the Potters.

"We'll do it," Mr. Potter said without bothering to consult with his wife. She was nodding along with him, however.

"We'll need to contact our world first and tell them what is going on," Mrs. Potter said. "And we'll expect you to sign a contract."

"Our world will help out your world, if your world will host us until the danger has passed," Nate said to confirm. He shook hands with Mr. Potter, sealing the deal.

* * *

James was completely blown away when the one man said that they had a Harry Potter; a Harry Potter that he took to be his son in this world. He was even more stunned when Twirly raised his hand after he blurted out the name. Twirly was Harry Potter, son of Lily and James Potter of this world, and part of the Leverage team.

If Twirly was the son of Lily and James Potter, then didn't that meant that Twirly was, "Our son?" James completed the thought out loud.

"Almost kind of," Twirly corrected. "You're from an alternate world, it would never make out."

"Harry holds an important job here at Hogwarts; he would be one of the last ones to leave Hogwarts," Nathan Ford threw in.

"We'll do it," James said, not bothering to consult with Lily. He knew that she would agree with him that they had to save their 'almost kind of' son. He glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye and was relieved to see that she was nodding along with him.

"We'll need to contact our world first and tell them what is going on," Lily said. They couldn't just show up with almost nine hundred people out of the blue. They would need time to prepare. "And we'll expect you to sign a contract."

"Our world will help out your world, if your world will host us until the danger has passed," Nathan said to confirm. He and James shook hands, sealing the deal.

"You're about Neville's age, aren't you?" James asked as things continued to connect in his mind. "We went ahead with having a baby in this universe and that's the major thing that divides our world, isn't it?"

"We couldn't quite figure it out, other than the fact that you aren't fighting Voldemort," Lily said. She hesitated, but finally asked, "Our alternates in this universe?"

"Died Halloween night, 1981," Harry chirped out.

"Oh," James said, feeling lame. "So, aliens, huh?"

"The aliens can shape shift, so you see why we had to lock you up," Sophie said. "I'm sure you can understand, being in a war yourselves."

"The aliens are also why I would like only one of you to head back to your world to inform them of what's going on," Nathan said.

"Only one of us?" James asked, worry rising once again.

"Just as you were worried about us invading your world, we are worried that you would simply disappear. It would be relatively easy to do," Nathan said.

James nodded to himself; he had been halfway expecting it. It would be what he would demand if he were in the alternate worlds' shoes. "Lily will travel back to our world and I will stay behind. But, I do want one of your people to go through and help her explain."

"Ah, Sophie or Eliot can go back with you," Nathan said after a moment.

"Actually, I was hoping that Twirly, Harry, could come along," Lily said.

"I'm not actually your son," Harry said. "Just to let you know."

"It's not because of that." Lily shook her head. "You are the one who could be most convincing."

"I don't know about that," Nathan hedged. He finally came to a decision and nodded his agreement. "Harry will go with you, but if he's not back in forty eight hours, we will send a team in after him and you do not want that to happen."

"Agreed." James stuck out his hand and shook hands with Nathan once again. "When do you want us to set the ritual up?"

"Now would be good," Nathan said as he motioned to the door. "Yeah, now would be good."

"We should have everything that we need on us," Lily commented as they moved towards the door. This time Twirly, Harry, did not take the lead, staying back in order to speak with the blonde female of the group.


	8. Going Into the Real World

A/N: To the alternate world! Only a couple of chapters left.

* * *

Chapter Eight: Going Into the "Real" World

* * *

"So now they know," Parker commented as they walked towards the Great Hall, following behind the rest of the group.

"Now they know," Harry repeated, speaking in the same bland tone that Parker was using.

"And you're going to their universe," Parker continued.

"With my maybe kind of almost mom," Harry agreed.

"Because Nate is crazy," Parker said. She paused. "Bring me back a souvenir?"

"Sure," Harry agreed, deciding not to mention the fact that everyone else would be joining him as soon as things were ready.

"You gonna be okay?" Parker asked.

"I'll be fine," Harry answered. He shrugged; he would much rather stay and take care of the aliens in their possession, but he had to go along with Nate's Great Plan. He did like to stay alive, after all and that seemed to mean that they needed to go to the alternate world. Harry just hoped that this wasn't a plan to kidnap him and keep him locked up as a replacement for the son that they never had. He kind of doubted that scenario would happen, but he was prepared in any case.

Draco pulled him away from Parker and the group before they reached the Great Hall, handing Harry his emergency pack and giving him a deep kiss. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked as he pulled away.

"Nate-poppa knows what's best," Harry replied. He leaned in and kissed Draco lightly. "I'll be back soon, or else you'll come to me soon. In any case, we'll be back together soon."

Lily and James were working together to draw something on the floor of the Great Hall. It didn't take long for them to complete the first part of the ritual. Then James stepped back and handed Harry a piece of parchment. "You need to say this at the same time that Lily does in order to get across the border."

"It's ready?" Nate asked, peering curiously at the spell. He wasn't curious as to how it worked, however; he was just curious as to the whole thing. Magic still fascinated him, even after all this time.

"It's ready." James waited until Nate nodded and then he turned to say goodbye to his wife. He kissed her and then went back to the spectator line as Harry stepped forward.

He and his almost kind of Mom stood in the center of the alchemic circle, back to back. She gave a warning and a second later they started chanting in unison. The spell sounded like it was a dialect of Latin, so Harry had no trouble pronouncing the words, even as Lily sped up her chant. A golden light enveloped them before flashing so bright that Harry had to close his eyes. When he could open them again, he found that all of his friends and family had disappeared and strangers had taken their place.

Instead of the cells keeping track of everything and nothing, there were four tables set up in front of him and another set up behind him he found when he turned slightly. It reminded him of how the Great Hal had been set up prior to the aliens' first attacks. There were even people eating, which solidified the image in his mind.

A large, black dog bounded down from the table that Lily had been facing and a red headed girl darted up from the tables that Harry was facing. He watched, fascinated, as the girl hugged his almost kind of mom and as the dog pranced around them. It was a while before the two noticed Harry, but there were several others who had already pointed their wands at Harry.

The black dog transformed into a Sirius Black, who frowned and pointed his wand at Harry. "Who are you?" the Sirius Black demanded.

"I'm Twirly and I would introduce you to Whirly, but he's not here right now; I can take a message if you want," Harry said, enjoying the look of confusion that appeared on the Sirius Black's face.

"He's Harry Potter from the alternate world," Lily answered, speaking more towards the grandfatherly figure standing at the center of the table in front of her.

The Sirius Black rocked back on his heels. "Harry Potter?"

"I'm married to James Potter in my world," Harry explained. The Sirius Black's eyes bulged and Lily shot him a weird look.

"He's James' son in the other world," Lily corrected.

"And my mother is Narcissa Potter," Harry added. He wanted to know just how much he could twist the situation before everything was explained. It was rather pointless, but it was fun.

"His mother is the Lily Potter in the other world; they did have a child the same time as Alice and Frank," Lily explained, shooting Harry a disgruntled look.

"And the world was made all the better for it," Harry said, though he was not speaking of the vanquishing of Voldemort. He struck a pose to show this fact, even though this world really didn't know that he was something of a celebrity.

"What's going on here?" The grandfatherly figure asked.

"The other world agreed to help us," Lily began her report.

"So they only sent the kid?" the Sirius Black interrupted. He peered around as though James Potter was hiding in Lily's small bag. "Where's James?"

"Is dad all right?" the red headed girl asked.

"James is fine; he's still in the alternate universe," Lily answered, running a hand down her daughter's head. "The other world agreed to help, but they want our help in return."

"What kind of help?" the Sirius Black asked.

"We need all of your whoopee cushions and half of your dung bombs," Harry intoned. The Sirius Black gasped in shock.

"Would you stop that?" Lily hissed, almost glaring at Harry.

"I can't help it; I haven't had my sugar today," Harry answered. He could see how he was grating on everyone's nerves and he decided to shut up. He didn't have Eliot to come beat everyone up for him if he provoked them all into attacking. "Fine, fine, I will be serious." Harry took a deep breath and stared the Grandfatherly Figure straight in his eyes. "Our world will help yours on one condition: that you allow our Hogwarts to stay here for a few days."

"The whole castle?" the Sirius Black asked, stunned yet again. Harry loved how easy it was to do it to the people in this universe.

"About nine hundred people," Harry confirmed.

"May I ask why you seek Sanctuary?" the Grandfatherly Figure asked.

Harry shrugged. "The Apopalips is coming and we would very much like to not be there while it is."

"The Apopalips?" the Grandfatherly Figure asked, enunciating the word in confusion.

"The end of the world," Harry clarified.

"I see," the Grandfatherly Figure said. "I will need to think it over. In the mean time, why don't you help yourself to our meal? I'm sure that young Zoe Potter will be willing to show you around." The Grandfatherly Figure's eyes twinkled as he made the offer.

* * *

Lily waited until Zoe had taken Harry down to the Gryffindor table before following Sirius up to the head table. Her usual seat was open up beside the Headmaster's and she sat down, waiting until Sirius had seated himself before setting up a privacy ward.

"Did everything go okay?" Sirius asked before Dumbledore could speak, "Beyond what you have already said, of course. They didn't hurt you or anything?"

"They locked us up in a cell, but they took good care of us beyond that," Lily answered. "We only saw a few people, though and it was a few days before we spoke with anyone in charge."

"Did you see me, though?" Sirius asked, a gleeful look in his eye that made Lily have to look away as she remembered the shell of the man that she saw in the alternate universe.

"I did see you." Lily paused and shook her head. "Things are bad in that world, like you wouldn't believe. I think Twirly, Harry, was right when he said that their world is going through worse than our world is. Yet, they say that they will help us if we help them through their crisis. They only need to spend a few days here and then the threat will be gone."

"What is the threat?" Dumbledore asked.

"Aliens planning on destroying their world," Lily answered. "I think whatever they are planning on doing only affects the world for a short period of time."

"Which is why they wish to come here to our world," Dumbledore said.

"What's to stop them from taking over our world? I mean, if their world is in worse shape than our world is, then wouldn't they want to have a better world?" Sirius asked, suspicious of their motives.

"Apparently there's some sort of disease that affects dimensional travelers," Lily replied, unable to totally remember what she and her husband had been told about it. "Most of them are unable to stay here for more than two days and even after that they will run into problems. We weren't affected by this because our doubles in that world seem to be dead."

"And Harry is your son," Sirius said, his voice lowering as he stared at Harry.

"In that world," Lily corrected. "That's part of why James caved and agreed to request permission. He is our son in that world and he would be one of the last to leave Hogwarts, which means that there is a good chance that he would die. All I can think about is Zoe and the fact that he is, as he says, my almost kind of son."

"It would be a stretch, hosting nine thousand extra people here at Hogwarts, but I am confident that the house elves would be able to handle it," Dumbledore mused.

"And they promised to help us out afterwards," Lily reminded. She bit her lip. "Can we really say no?"

Dumbledore was silent for a moment before he shook his head. "No, we cannot. Still, we would need a day to prepare for the influx of people."

"We have two days before they start looking for Harry," Lily said. She looked over to her almost kind of son. "While he doesn't have us in his world, he still has found a family of his own."

"If we have two days, then I suggest that Harry spend the night in the Gryffindor tower with the other boys his age. There's no sense in contacting them before we are ready." Dumbledore fell silent, plotting out how he could get everything to work.

Sirius and Lily left him alone to figure it out, Sirius pestering Lily about the alternate world and the things that she saw there. Lily answered as best that she could, making sure that she stayed away from talking about the childish Sirius that she saw in the other world.


	9. Pineapple?

A/N: Life in the Alternate World.

* * *

Chapter Nine: Pineapple?

* * *

"Do you have pineapple?" Harry asked Zoe.

"I'm sure that it will show up somewhere," Zoe said with a shrug.

"Pineapple is a rare delicacy in our world, mostly because Shawn Spencer usually gets to it before anyone else," Harry explained.

Zoe led him over to one of the tables and he didn't even try to guess at what table he was sitting at. Even though the students' ties and symbols seemed to scream out that this was the Gryffindor table, Harry didn't bother to think about it. It had been so long since he had thought of himself as a Hogwarts student, instead of a Leverage team member.

As he loaded his plate up with pineapples and other fruits and vegetables that had been scarce in his world – the greenhouses could only grow so much, especially since half of the greenhouses were filled with rare Wizariding plants – Harry watched the goings on at the teacher's table. Lily and the Sirius Black joined the Grandfatherly Figure and other adults and started talking right away. Harry absently followed the conversation by lip reading, even as he listened to Zoe Potter chatter on.

"And this is Neville Longbottom, the boy who lived, Ron Weasley, and Lavender Brown; they're some of the students who are your age," Zoe finished the introductions of everyone sitting near them.

"Are you really from an alternate universe?" the Ron Weasley asked, just as blunt as he remembered his Ron being.

"No, I am a demon. Didn't you know? The Potters had a son, but he died soon after he was born. The Potters went crazy and James offered himself up as a sacrifice in order to regain his son. Unfortunately, they just received me instead," Harry answered, winking at his almost kind of sister. She really didn't look like him, he mused as he finally looked her over. Her hair was a deeper kind of red than his almost kind of mother's and she didn't have green eyes. Instead her eyes were hazel, almost matching his almost kind of father's.

"You're a demon?" the Ron Weasley yelped, jerking back from Harry.

"He's not a demon," Zoe said as she stuck her tongue out at Harry. Her tone was a bit exasperated when she replied to Ron. "And he is from an alternate universe, Ron."

"I was just asking," Ron replied.

"So, the boy who lived, huh?" Harry asked. "Does it suck as much as I've heard?"

"What?" Neville asked, blinking at Harry.

"I've heard that the title comes with a million people staring at you and one madman after your head," Harry clarified. Though, things had gotten better in his own world, in exchange for the alien attacks.

"Yeah, I suppose so." Neville still looked like he had no idea what Harry was talking about.

"So, what is your world like?" Lavender asked, sounding almost like his battle ready Lavender did. She still had a fair streak of vapidness to her, he judged from her wide eyes and the makeup that she was wearing.

"Well, for one thing, we have a cookie monster that lives in the kitchens," Harry answered.

"What's a cookie monster?" Ron asked, his eyes wide.

"There's no such thing as a cookie monster; it's just a popular American puppet," the Hermione Granger said, glaring at Harry.

"Okay, it might not be a real Cookie Monster, but it's blue and fuzzy and only eats cookies, so that's what we call it." Harry shrugged and then peered at Hermione. "Did I do something to offend you? I haven't been here real long and I haven't had the chance to glue anything, but I feel as though you don't like me."

"She's just upset that she didn't get to go through the gate to the other world," Zoe answered. "She helped a lot with some of the equations for extra credit."

"Extra credit?" Harry asked, blinking in question.

"You know, for school?" Zoe asked, blinking at him in return.

"School?" Harry continued to blink. "What is this thing called school?"

"Classes where you learn things," Zoe answered, still blinking back at him.

"You don't have school?" Hermione gasped in shock.

"We had it a few years ago." Harry wrinkled his forehead. "It was boring, but then more exciting things happened and we had to worry more about staying alive than good grades."

"That's it, Voldemort must be defeated," Hermione declared.

"So that he doesn't interfere with school?" Zoe asked, knowing where Hermione was going.

"Exactly," Hermione said. She pinned Harry with a look. "How long has it been since you've had any structured learning?"

"I learned how to take down a man in less than five moves last week and Parker taught me how to crack a safe about a month ago," Harry answered after some thought.

"Have you learned silent casting yet?" Hermione asked.

"I've learned how to walk silently, pick a lock silently." Harry shrugged. "Silent casting is more Whirly's thing than mine, but he learned that from evil incarnate."

"Evil incarnate?" Neville asked. He and Ron perked back up when the topic moved away from school stuffs.

"Snape," Harry stated. He peered around the Great Hall, looking for his most hated adult, but he couldn't see the dark, brooding man. "Where is he?"

"He hasn't been seen since the Great Split," Neville answered.

"The Great Split?" Harry asked.

"Back when Voldemort stepped up his attacks, most of the Slytherin families that supported him took their children out of Hogwarts. Whether or not you were connected to Hogwarts was how one told which side a person was on," Hermione lectured.

"That's silly," Harry said. "What about double agents and so on?"

"He has us pinned down in the castle, why would he need to spy on us?" Hermione asked.

"Because of the portal to the other world?" Harry raised his eyebrow.

"He wouldn't know that we are capable of it." Hermione sighed and shook her head. "In any case, he doesn't think it necessary to keep an eye on us."

Harry shrugged. "If you say so."

"You know, exams are coming up for us soon; you should study with us," Hermione said.

Harry's eyes widened and he leaped up from his seat. He raced across the Great Hall, heading towards his almost kind of mother. "Save me, save me!" he exclaimed. "They are trying to get me to study!"

Sirius burst into laughter and Lily shook her head. "I have good news and bad news," she said to Harry. "Which would you like to hear first?"

"The news that says that I can go home and escape from book learning," Harry answered.

"Okay, the good news is that Professor Dumbledore agreed to help your world; the bad news is that we need a day or so in order to prepare for the arrival of nine thousand people. So, unfortunately, you are stuck here until tomorrow afternoon," Lily answered, her eyes twinkling in amusement.

"If it wasn't for the fact that I would like to stay alive, I would say just forget about the deal," Harry huffed. He cast a reluctant gaze at the Gryffindor table, but did head back to it. He plopped down into his seat and sighed. "Lay it on me."

Hermione brightened and started rambling on about pink sparks or something. Ron started up a game of tic tac toe on spare piece of parchment. It was almost exactly like his faded memories of classes.

* * *

Considering the fact that it was highly possible for the alternate world to help them out, Nate refrained from sending the male Potter back to the cell in the dungeons. Instead, Nate put him in Remus Lupin's custody, trusting that the werewolf would know what not to say. There was also the fact that James would be content to be in Lupin and Black's company and maybe spending more time with Black would cement the man's desire to help them.

With James Potter squared away, Nate called together another council meeting. He could get away with not telling his plans to the main bulk of the residents at Hogwarts, but the council needed to stay in the loop. They always got pissy whenever he revealed something that big without telling them, even if they didn't care what he did.

His team scattered when he entered the council room; leaving to get everything into place. Nate settled down in his seat and waited for the other two council members. Riddle swept into the room first, raising his eyebrow at Nate. "You've done something again, haven't you?" the brunette with red eyes asked.

"What are you talking about?" Nate asked, grinning at the former Dark Lord.

"You have that look about you, the one that says that you've been plotting," Riddle said. He looked up when McGonagall entered the room and nodded in greeting.

"He's been up to something?" Minerva asked as she sat down. She looked at the two men over the top of her glasses, pinning them with her headmistress glare.

"Well, I might have come up with a solution to the situation that we're in," Nate admitted.

"You've come up with a solution? To how we're going to escape the biobomb?" Riddle asked.

"The Potters were actually from an alternate world," Nate said, his voice rising significantly on the phrase 'alternate world.'

"And you sent one of them back with one of your own," Riddle agreed. "What of it?"

"They might be willing to give us safe harbor in exchange for receiving some help of their own," Nate revealed. "I sent back Mrs. Potter and Harry in order to find out the answer."

"So, instead of using one of the Stargates, you plan on us heading into another world to wait out the end of our world," McGonagall said, trying to make sure that she understood what Nate was saying.

"We're not going to make it to the Stargate in time. The aliens are planning on attacking us any day now. They're only trying to see what agents they can retrieve and then we're gone for." Nate paused and Riddle nodded to himself. "With the alternate world, we only have to step through, just as if we had a Stargate and we're safe."

"What about the Failure? What was it called?" McGonagall looked towards Riddle for the term.

"Entropic Cascade Failure," Riddle answered.

"Which doesn't take effect until a couple of days have passed," Nate broke in. "As soon as we get the signal that the biobombs are about to be dropped, we can head through and wait out the attack."

"Will we get enough warning?" McGonagall asked, still looking worried and uncertain.

"We still have a solid connection to the SGC and that should give us all the warning time that we need. The gate only needs two people casting and powering the spell and the others can step through." Nate paused and looked them both in the face. "This is our best bet."

"I suppose if it is our only chance." McGonagall sighed, but nodded her consent.

"I'm all for it, but I have to know: do they know about my existence?" Riddle asked.

"Er, not as such," Nate answered. "And given how they are currently in a war against your alternate self, it might not be such a good idea to tell them about you."

"We could disguise him, put him in costume," Parker suggested.

McGonagall couldn't stop a small jump as she startled at Parker's sudden appearance. Riddle only lazily blinked, quite used to the blonde's stealth methods. Nate didn't react at all, having known that his thief had entered the room when the talk of Entropic Cascade Failure had ended.

"You look different enough from their version already, since Mr. Potter didn't recognize you," Nate said, leaning back in his chair and appraised Riddle.

"So we only need to give him some contacts and sunglasses," Parker said as she also stared at the Wizard. "Maybe a gag."

"I don't need a gag. Why would I need a gag?" Riddle asked, glaring at the thief.

"Well, they might recognize your voice, but you rarely talk, anyway," Nate mused. He looked over at Parker. "I don't think he'll need a gag, but why don't you talk with Hardison and Sophie about disguises?"

"Right. Follow me," she chirped at Riddle. He continued to glare at her, but did get out of his seat and followed her out of the room. Nate figured that it was only so that he could control what they dressed him in and make sure that there weren't any gags planned.

"I trust that you know what you're doing," McGonagall softly told him before striding out of the room.

Nate leaned back in his chair with a sigh, halfway wishing that he had a glass of alcohol on him. He needed a clear head, though, so he ordered up a butterbeer instead. It was the best that he could do in such circumstances. He took a moment to enjoy the drink before he threw himself back into the chaos.


	10. End of the World

A/N: And all life ends. Plus there is more surprise crossovers. Also, yay for reviews!

* * *

Chapter Ten: End of the World

* * *

Despite Hermione's lectures and demonstrations of what Harry would have experienced if his world hadn't canceled classes, Harry actually spent a decent night in the alternate world. He had spent the night with the other Gryffindor boys, entertaining them with his oddity. They exchanged a lot of stories back and forth over the night, finally getting to sleep in the early hours of the morning.

Harry had kept an eye on the teachers table during breakfast, but received no indication that they were going to contact his world. His almost kind of mother had said that they would contact his world in the afternoon, of course, but Harry had been hoping to get out of attending classes. Lily had come down to greet him and Zoe, but she didn't say anything about keeping him behind and Harry was dragged off to class by Hermione.

Classes weren't that bad. Harry found them as boring as ever, even when he was able to do some silent casting during the Defense Against Dark Arts class. There were some interesting things taught, but he found the classroom setting to be annoying. He had gotten used to being taught wherever and whenever was handy. Torture techniques had been taught in the dungeons amongst the aliens, confidence lessons had taken place in the conference room, and repelling lessons had taken place from the top of the Astronomy Tower and down.

Still, he managed to get through that part of the day and he was pulled over after lunch by Lily, the Sirius, and the Grandfatherly Figure. "Is it time?" Harry asked, bouncing in place.

"It's time," Lily answered. "In order to appease all political parties, we have decided to send Sirius over to your world with our answer. He cannot stay long, since your Sirius Black is there, but he will stay as long as he can in order to power the Gate when the time comes."

"In order to reassure the officials in your world that you are all right and are not harmed, we would like you to write out a brief letter stating those facts," the Grandfatherly Figure said.

The Sirius Black handed Harry a piece of parchment and a quill. Harry took them and scribbled out a quick message on the parchment; it simply read: These facts - Twirly. Harry handed the parchment and quill back to the Sirius Black, who barked out a laugh at the message.

"All right, I'm off," the Sirius Black said. He saluted both Lily and the Grandfatherly Figure and headed over to the center of the Great Hall. Harry watched in interest as the Sirius Black chanted something similar to what he had used the day before. This time he could see the actual Gate appear before them; a large, shadowy illusion that disappeared with the Sirius Black.

"I believe Neville and the rest are in Potions class right now, if you would like to join them," Lily said after a moment.

"Nah," Harry replied. "It's just not the same with the threat of Snape hanging over your head. Potions class is supposed to be a deadly sport, after all." With that, Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table, staring at the center of the Great Hall. His almost kind of mother hovered over him for a couple of minutes before finally following after the Grandfatherly figure.

He knew that his almost kind of mother didn't like him just waiting around, but he had a feeling that he wouldn't be waiting for long. He knew the aliens better than anyone; he knew that they weren't going to just dally around when they had made their decision. They would attack as soon as they had retreated all they could from the planet.

He wouldn't have that long to wait, and he would rather stay with his family rather than being lectured and attending school. So, he ignored everyone and watched for the Sirius Black's return and the appearance of his people.

* * *

Sirius Black appeared in front of a crowd in the alternate world. Strangely enough, only a few people actually paid attention to his arrival, the rest were all busy scurrying to and fro. One person did approach him and clapped his hand on Sirius Black's shoulders. "Good, you're here," the guy said. "We leave in an hour."

"Wait, so soon?" Sirius Black blurted out in surprise.

"The aliens are about to move and we'd like to be as far away from them as possible when they let the bombs loose," the man said. He started steering Sirius over to a table where a bunch of red heads were clustered.

"How did you know that we were going to say yes?" Sirius Black asked.

"It was figured that Harry Potter would convince you some way or another," the man said with a quirk of the lips. "And when you appeared, we figured it was full steam ahead."

"Peter," one of the men at the table who was not red headed greeted. He peered at Sirius Black. "Is this him?"

"This is him, but this isn't your section, Neal," the man who had led Sirius Black over answered. "Weren't you supposed to be with the supply teams?"

Neal pouted. "They kicked me off when I tried to add in a couple of extra things to the load."

"We're not going to be gone for long, Neal, and it isn't like there will be anyone to steal anything." The two men paused while they thought of why that was. "So, you got kicked off the team. What are you doing now?"

"I switched jobs with Jones," Neal answered. He tilted his head to indicate another group at another table. "El's been doing all right and she's even been letting me help out."

"Right. This is Sirius Black from the alternate world; Black, these are the Weasleys and Neal Caffery. Be careful," Peter introduced before wandering off. Sirius Black absently watched as Peter headed over to a dark haired woman at the table that Neal had pointed out.

"You really do want to be careful," the younger red headed teen absently told Sirius Black. "I don't know if you know the twins in your world, but here they are quite the terrors. They get on with Neal like a salamander on fire."

"I know the Weasley Twins in my world," Sirius Black said with a grin. "We get on great."

"That's good," one twin said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"Old chap," the other twin said as he clapped a hand on Sirius Black's other shoulder.

"Because you are going to be," the first twin said.

"Working with us on getting everyone," the second twin continued.

"Through the portal," the first twin finished.

"Now, we've talked to James Potter about how the portals work, and he volunteered to be one of the pillars in the ritual," the younger Weasley, Ron, broke in. "Given who you are, I'm assuming that you wish to be the second pillar in the ritual?"

"Yes," Sirius Black answered, nodding his head in reply.

"You do understand that there is a risk involved in this position, especially if the biobombs are dropped before we all get through?" Ron asked, looking at Sirius Black for the first time.

"Yes, but you're going to be fighting off Voldemort on the other side and I'm willing to die for the cause," Sirius Black answered.

Ron snorted, but didn't reply. "Caffrey, since Burke is here with his wife, why don't you go fetch James Potter? Tell Lupin to get ready, also."

"Lupin?" Sirius Black perked up as Neal left. "Remus Lupin?"

"The same," Ron nodded. He turned back to the lists in front of him, effectively changing the subject. "The injured and those taking care of them are the first to be brought across. They will be followed by the women and children. Then the secondary leaders will leave with the civilian men. Finally, the military and the council's forces will leave and the council will be the last across, followed by the pillars. All groups will bring supplies with them."

Sirius Black blinked at the complexity of it all. "Wow, I would have never had thought of doing it that way."

Ron sighed. "We need to move as quickly as possible, which means that we need to be as efficient as possible. We have six hours before the aliens will strike and nine thousand people to herd across."

"Right," Sirius Black replied. He settled against the table and watched the crowd get ready to head into the alternate world. The Weasleys had a few questions for him and James, when he arrived, but for the most part they just ignored the two from the alternate world. The things that they were discussing were so complicated that Sirius Black mostly ignored them in return.

Around half an hour after Sirius Black had arrive, the injured started entering the Great Hall. Somehow the rolling beds were squeezed into the already crowded room. Some of them looked obviously injured, with bandages and medics that hovered over them, but some of the people in the stretchers merely looked asleep. Sirius Black started when he recognized Remus Lupin in the crowd, but James shook his head at him when Sirius Black motioned over to him.

It wasn't quite an hour after Sirius Black had arrived in the alternate world when Peter motioned him and James over to the center of the Great Hall, but it was close. "We're ready," Peter said when they got close enough to hear him. "If you could cast the spell, we can get this show on the road."

"Right," Sirius Black nodded. He glanced over at James as the center of the Great Hall was cleared of people. "On three?"

"On three," James agreed as they moved into their spots.

"One, two, three," Sirius Black announced before starting the spell. He chanted in unison with James until the portal was open. James nodded at Peter and streams of beds were pushed through the portal.

Sirius Black relaxed and focused on keeping the gate open as he watched the streams of people flow through. He hoped that his world was ready for this invasion, as he realized for once just how many people nine thousand was. Finally, the last large group of people trickled through and Sirius Black started as he recognized Professor McGonagall.

"We are the last ones through besides yourselves, Mr. Black and Mr. Potter," McGonagall said. "I would advise you to follow as soon as you can, however, as the strike time is soon."

"We'll be over as soon as you guys are through," James replied.

The three people nodded at them, McGonagall and two men that Sirius wasn't able to identify, and stepped through the portal. James and Sirius waited an extra minute before they started the part of the spell that would transport them through the portal and back to their world.


	11. Aftermath

Oops, I had totally forgotten that I hadn't uploaded the epilogue... Sorry about that! (And also disappearing from this site for 2 years...) Anyway, the last bit of Apopalips:

* * *

Epilogue: Aftermath

* * *

Almost hour after the Sirius Black disappeared, the center of the Great Hall flared with a golden light and dark gates appeared and opened. Harry backed away from the portal until he was sitting on the teacher's table. His almost kind of mother would have probably scolded him if she had noticed, but as it was, everyone was too busy to notice his actions.

Madam Pomfrey was the first person through the gate, although dozens of hospital beds followed her. Remus was another authority figure, but he worked with Lily and the other people in the alternate world to transfer the injured out of the Great Hall. Madam Pomfrey stayed in the Great Hall until the last of the beds came through.

There was a waiting period of fifteen minutes before the next group came through. This time Elizabeth Burke was the leader of the pack, along with Molly Weasley. Molly was the one to follow the alternate Sprout to the guest rooms, leading a long line of women and children. After another fifteen minute break, the civilian men started to stream through, lead by Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke amongst others. After the civilian men and the secondary leaders were through, Harry brightened as his friends finally came through the gate.

His friends actually noticed his location and instead of following Carlton Lassiter out of the Great Hall, they trooped over to where Harry was sitting. Parker, Luna, Ron, and Neville sat down on the table with Harry, but the others just leaned against the table and watched the gate travelers

Draco leaned on the table right next to Harry and rested his arm on Harry's knee. Harry patted Draco's head before going back to watching. The military and the council forces moved quicker than any of the other groups, as they were more used to doing procedures such as this.

The wait after the military and council forces were through was only for five minutes before the Council stepped through. Harry laughed when he saw Riddle and laughed even harder when he felt the glare through Riddle's sunglasses. Nate led the Council over to where Harry was sitting and greeted his team.

A minute afterwards, the gate flared a golden light and disappeared, leaving the Sirius Black and James Potter standing in the center of the Great Hall. As the rest of the people trickled out of the Great Hall, the Grandfatherly Figure, the Sirius Black, and the almost kind of parents headed over to the teachers table.

Lily gave Harry a stern look when she found him sitting on the table, but he ignored her, paying more attention to Nate. The Grandfatherly Figure was the first one to speak up, however. "Greetings and welcome to our Hogwarts. You seem to have gotten here all right and I hope that your stay here will be enjoyable."

"We understand that you have a bit of a problem, yourself," Riddle said. He tilted his sunglasses down to show his red eyes. "Let's talk about Voldemort and how you're going to defeat him."

* * *

An hour and fifteen minutes after the last actual person in Hogwarts left, the biobombs were finally dropped. They screamed as they rained down from the sky and all of the humans left in the world screamed as the biobombs detonated. The captured aliens left behind on earth also screamed as the gasses got to them. The chemicals within the biobombs were set to only kill humans, but the captured aliens had traces of human DNA in order to blend in with hopes of going undetected.

The animals remaining on earth had no idea what was going on, as they were unaffected by the biobombs, save for the force of them hitting the earth. Most of the magical creatures were likewise unaffected by the chemicals; whatever human DNA might be in some of them was so slight that at the most they just got sick. The vampires and the werewolves started out as humans, so they either went with the Hogwarts troop, or they left with other rides off of the planet. The inferi were the only creatures wiped out by the biobombs.

The aliens monitored the planet until they were satisfied that all intelligent life was destroyed. Confident in their belief that they had conquered the human race, the aliens took off for another planet to 'play' with. Free of their presence, magical creatures began to emerge from their hiding places.

It took humans half a day before the chemicals had dissipated enough for them to scout out the earth to be sure that the aliens had gone. The Hogwarts troop waited a full twenty four hours before they returned.

In direct contrast to their evacuation, the military forces and those who worked for the Council were the first groups through. They checked the entirety of Hogwarts for any breaches in security before they signaled for the other groups to come through. The civilian men were the next group through, along with the secondary leaders. Then the women and children came through, clearing the way for the injured to arrive. When the last group was through, the Council and the last of stragglers came through the gate, which flashed before disappeared.

Harry, surrounded by the Council and Parker, grinned and announced: "Honey, we're home!"


End file.
